nyc

Here are some pictures from Scott's trip with the girls.  He had the best time.  He just loved spending all that time with his girls.  It was one of the neatest trips ever, and I'm so glad it worked out like it did.  It was originally just going to be Scott and Golda, for her 16th birthday.  Then, with the Europe trip tacked on, it made more sense for Ruby to go so that Scott could take both of them to the airport together.  Golda was a good sport about sharing her 16-year-old trip with Ruby.  Well, sortof a good sport.  In the end, I bet she wouldn't have had it any other way.

There are a lot of details that I'm leaving out here, since I wasn't there.  Scott will have to fill them in.  When I picked up Scott at the airport coming home from New York, he kept getting all teary-eyed about how wonderful the trip was and how hard it was to send the girls off alone.

As I was leaving to pick up Scott at the airport, I got a text from Ruby:  "In Paris!"  When I was almost at the airport, another text:  "We found them."  Good, the girls had found their host family.  When Scott checked his messages, the girls had texted, "Made it to Iceland.  We needed to use the letter.  Waiting to board."

That about made my heart stop.  Our friend in Spain, Juan Altieri, had told me that the girls would need a "permission to travel abroad without parents" letter of consent for him, since he was picking up the girls in Portugal and had to bring them across the border into Spain.  I looked into it and didn't really find anything that said that that was a thing, so I blew it off.  A couple of weeks later, he asked me again if I had taken care of that.  I thought we might as well do it, so Scott found an official-looking "permission to travel" document on the Canadian government website, printed off several copies, filled them out, got them notarized and put them in the girls' travel dossiers.

And they needed them in Iceland!  I shudder to think what might have happened if they had not had those documents in Iceland.  It might have been fine.  Or they might have been detained in Iceland.  I get chills thinking about what could have happened.  Tender mercy, that Juan mentioned that to me twice, and that Scott found the right document, and that we had the foresight to include those letters, even though Golda and even Ruby are not considered minors on any of the airlines they fly on.  The only person I have ever heard of such a thing from is our friend in Spain.  What a blessing!

Anyway, before Iceland came Brooklyn and the greatest Daddy-Daughter trip of our lives thus far...

After saying good-bye to Mom and Freestone at the airport, flying to New York

Seeing Wicked!  They also saw Cinderella on Broadway. Both were amazing!

I love graffiti

So does Scott, apparently, because he took lots of pictures of it.

Brooklyn Smorgasbord

The Met for Golda's birthday.  Did you know, even though the suggested price for admission is $25, you can pay whatever you want?  Little-known fact that saved Scott about $65.00

"Look, Ruby, square shoes!   They'd fit you!"

Egyptian exhibit

Baltic Strad

I love this picture because it's the expression Golda has when she's relaxing with friends.  Dad is a great friend

 I can only imagine!

 High Line

 Lindt chocolate

 We will be using this picture in the future, I'm guessing at a wedding reception. :)

 Tradition...crawling across the Brooklyn Bridge

 Beautiful Ruby

 Near their apartment in Williamsburg, Brooklyn

 Pizza crawl...the last night they were there, they went to three different pizza places in Brooklyn

 Leaving for the airport, going to France

 Scott was sooooo sad!

 There they go!

And five hours later, Scott left to come home.